The Name
Although the expression "Paisa" is of popular use as apocope of "Paisano" (one from the same country; countryman), the origin of the expression goes back to a separatist movement that brewed through the region in the mid nineteenth Century. Those politicians that secretly supported secession would refer to the new country as "Pais A", short for Pais Antioquia. The moniker eventually was fused to create the word "paisa". Consequently, "Paisa Region" is the region where the Paisa people live. A more ancient expression is Antioqueño (Antioquean; one from Antioquia). This one is more official, especially during the Colony (16th - eighteenth centuries) and the nineteenth century after the Independence of Colombia. All the region made a single body as "Province of Antioquia" first and "State of Antioquia" after. In 1905 was created the Caldas Department from the southern part of Antioquia, making that the world "Antioqueño" remains only for those of Antioquia, while "Paisa" became a more cultural one.
Read more about this topic: Paisa Region
Famous quotes related to the name:
“There is a river in Macedon, and there is moreover a river in Monmouth. It is called Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but ‘tis all one, ‘tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)